Halliburton Co. surges ahead of KBR Inc public offering

JasminaKelemen

The Amex Oil Index
XOI, -0.81%
fell in early trading but reversed course after the release of the inventory report, closing 0.5% higher at 1,177.55 points as crude oil for December delivery gained 45 cents to stand at $58.73 a barrel in commodities trading.

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Oil Service Index
OSX, -0.96%
added 1.7% to 201.65 points and the Amex Natural Gas Index
XNG, -1.04%
gained 1.1% to 450.92 points as natural gas shot up 2.6% to $8.18 per million British thermal units.

Motor gasoline supplies fell by 3.7 million barrels to 200.3 million for the week ended Nov. 10, the Energy Department reported Wednesday morning. The American Petroleum Institute said they fell 1.4 million barrels to 203.7 million. See full story.

Including the latest decline, gasoline inventories have declined a total of 15.2 million barrels since early October, according to government figures.

Crude supplies rose 1.3 million to 336 million, the Energy Department reported -- though that was what some market analysts had been expecting. They're up 3.7 million barrels in three weeks, according to the data.

Halliburton now expects the initial public offering for its KBR Inc. to be priced Wednesday night after a one-day delay to recirculate its IPO prospectus. This puts the KBR spin-off on track to make its stock market debut on Thursday.

Calyon Securities praised the spin-off, shrugging off a disclosure from the company that it could lose a contract to maintain nuclear submarines in the U.K. because of a dispute with the British government over the IPO.

"We continue to see significant value at KBR, and believe investors should remain focused on the energy and chemical unit's bright growth prospects in the liquefied natural gas and gas to liquids gas monetization markets," Calyon Securities said.

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